An iPod By Any Other Name
November 12th, 2008 by ComputerBob
One of my pet peeves about Linux is that many of the names of its applications, utilities, etc., are nerdy “inside-jokes” and/or recursive acronyms — names like Pidgin, GNU, LAME and Wine. If you’re a Linux user, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not a Linux user, I don’t think I can explain it to you in a way that you would know what I’m talking about.
To some people, such names are clever and/or quirky and/or they demonstrate the superior intelligence of whoever thought of them, as well as the intellectual superiority of anyone who understands or can remember what they mean and how to pronounce them.
I have no doubt that the average Linux user probably knows a lot more about computers than the average Windows user, but for some reason, a good percentage of Linux users seem to need to constantly reassure themselves of that. Kind of like the way that movie stars and country singers each have an endless stream of televised awards shows that let them pat themselves on the back and convince themselves that they’re important to society.
To me, however, many Linux names seem unecessarily pompous and elitist, and they strengthen the stereotype that Linux is an operating system that was created by geeks and is for geeks only — sort of like a technological Mensa club.
On the other hand, the people who market successful commercial products don’t seem to have that same need to assert their intelligence — those who argue that that’s because they have none are ignoring the fact that people spend billions of dollars every year on useless products, having been convinced to do so by clever marketing. Such marketers try to find product names that are clever without being pompous; that sound intelligent without sounding elitist. That are easy to remember and easy to pronounce. That “make sense.”
How well do they succeed? Judge for yourself after you read How 10 Famous Technology Products Got Their Names.
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